It was Cote’s first
Ultimate Fighting Championship appearance since three straight
losses resulted in his release from the promotion. To his credit,
Cote did win four consecutive fights away from the Octagon
following his unanimous decision defeat to Tom Lawlor at
UFC 121.

Le, meanwhile, put forth an admirable effort in his promotional
debut at UFC 139 in November, when he engaged in an exciting
back-and-forth match with Wanderlei
Silva that earned the two men “Fight of the Night” honors. Le
eventually succumbed to knees and punches with just seconds left in
the second stanza.

Heading into his bout with Cote, the depth of the 40-year-old
sanshou specialist’s gas tank remained in question. However, Le
rose to the challenge.

Le weathered the storm of Cote’s punches and managed to conserve
just enough energy to stay competitive throughout the bout, landing
his trademark kicks, a few counterpunches and even some takedowns
in the final round. Whether Le has a few more fights in him remains
anyone’s guess, but he beat the odds and spoiled Cote’s return, all
while securing his first win inside the Octagon.

Sherdog.com

Maia’s 170-pound debut was quick.

It did not take long for Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Demian Maia,
at +117 odds, to find success in his welterweight debut against
Dong
Hyun Kim (-147), becoming only the second man to do defeat the
man they call “Stun Gun.” Carlos Condit
was the first, as he stopped Kim with a flying knee and follow-up
punches at UFC 132.

Maia immediately shot for a takedown, eating some hammerfists in
the process. Still, he managed to take Kim’s back and transition
briefly to mount after landing a takedown. Suffering from an
apparent rib injury, Kim lost the bout just 47 seconds into the
round.

Yoislandy
Izquierdo’s dominance on the feet makes it easy to see why he
came into his bout with Rafaello
Oliveira as a -205 favorite; he used his southpaw stance to
connect with straight lefts and left body kicks. However, it was
Oliveira’s ground game that cemented the win for him despite his
+165 odds.

“The Tractor” landed takedowns each round, and though Izquierdo
showcased some skilled submission defense, he spent the majority of
the fight being controlled on the ground by the Brazilian jiu-jitsu
black belt, who won two out of three rounds on the judges’
scorecards.

Nurmagomedov was relentless, though unsuccessful, with his takedown
attempts. The fight looks just about dead even based on FightMetric
figures, but perhaps the judges found Nurmagomedov more aggressive.